Ed Burtynsky

A while ago I saw a link to his work at WorldChanging but somehow I didn't give much attention to it, until it showed up again at Treehugger, this time about a movie that has been made about his work.

And it grabbed me immediately! His work is at the least inspiring to work on an industrial ecology. The most intrigueing is the fact that his photographs are both beautiful (and even the things that he photographs on itself) and shocking at the same time. He makes it look as if we treat the earth as if it's just LEGO (well that's the feeling I get). This means both good and bad things, since the scale doesn't imply if it's sustainable or not (surprise, surprise here's industrial ecology)

The best thing about it all is the fact that Burtynsky is on a mission to make people aware of this. So here I let you know about his work; go see his TED talk, check out his website and let me know if you find out about a theatre showing his movie in the Netherlands (check out the trailer!).

Thermohaline Circulation

Realclimate has an interesting article documenting the latest studies on the Thermohaline Circulation. For those who haven't heard of it, this
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/10/ocean-circulation-new-evidence-yes-slowdown-no/

China working towards partnerships with African countries

Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation


http://english.people.com.cn/200611/06/eng20061106_318573.html

On Saturday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao proposed that China and Africa should fully tap cooperation potential and strive to bring their trade volume to 100 billion U.S. dollars by 2010.

The figure will more than double the 2005 level, about 39.7 billion U.S. dollars. In the first nine months, China-Africa trade surged to 40.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 42 percent year-on-year.

At the two-day Summit, the African leaders reiterated their countries' firm commitment to the one-China policy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-China_policy

"They (the African countries) reiterated that they adhere to the one-China policy and support China's peaceful reunification," said the declaration.

At the opening ceremony Saturday, President Hu announced a package of aid and assistance measures to Africa including 3 billion U.S. dollars of preferential loans in next three years and the exemption of more debt owed by poor African countries.

(us trade numbers)
http://usinfo.state.gov/af/Archive/2005/Apr/26-505429.html

(eu trade numbers)
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/bilateral/regions/acp/index_en.htm

my heart's in accra
http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=1096

I4D-day 2006: Fuelling the Future

On november 16, there is a network day in Amsterdam, called "I4D-day 2006: Fuelling the Future". On this day, the Innovation for Development-network (I4D) will be launched.
The theme of the day is sustainable technological innovation to support the increasing energy demand in the third world.

from their website:

"Students and researchers of technological universities and representatives of other knowledge institutes and companies in the Netherlands will present during the I4D-day 2006 the I4Deas they have for meeting this challenge. Development economists, politicians and representatives of development agencies will go into debate with them. Film and music will tickle the senses in different ways."

If you are into the energy issue, this might be interesting - I looks like a nice multidisciplinary day!

Full program

don't forget to sign up (at their website) if you want to go!

Funny Weather?

For those of you who have seen the movie 'The Inconvenient Truth' by Al Gore, the following story might be very familiar:

http://www.funnyweather.org/

In any case, this seems like a nice way to introduce your friends and family etc to the complicated topic of climate change in a very funny and easy way.

Plug-in Diesel Hybrids on Google Talks

As a follow up to the previous biofuels talk by Vinod Khosla, Google Talks now has a presentation on plug-in diesel hybrids. Reed Benet presents an interesting system view where he argues that bio-diesel is more efficient than ethanol from the production stage (growing, gasification) to its use in a diesel engine. He also talks about interesting possibilities of integrating these cars with the electrical grid.

[via The Energy Blog]

Dutch 'Cradle to Cradle' documentary

The Dutch tv-show 'Tegenlicht' made a very interesting documentary about Cradle to Cradle design, based on and in cooperation with the writers of the book with this title: McDonough and Braungart.
The voice-over is in Dutch but all the interviews are in English, so anyone will understand most of this documentary. It can be seen on-line on the following website (click in the upper-right corner on 'Video: bekijk de uitzending AFVAL=VOEDSEL')

http://www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/afleveringen/30458986/

For all of you interested in eco-design this definitely is a must-read book and must-see docu :)